Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate. These papers are generally brief and written in nontechnical language, and so are aimed at a broad audience...

This Joint Staff Advisory Note discusses Afghanistan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper's annual progress report. Afghanistan has experienced a number of extraordinary challenges that delayed its implementation. The security situation deteriorated markedly and has been dominated by the...

The Growth and Social Protection Strategy (GSPS) attaches great importance to the promotion of economic growth and job creation, given the nature of poverty in Dominica. The GSPS also stresses that existing health and education programs are essential to foster growth in the medium and long...

Falling international prices have helped lower Haiti’s inflation, but base money growth has continued to be higher than targeted in the program. The paper discusses Haiti’s Annual Progress Report on Implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. In the area of economic...

This paper discusses findings of the Technical Assistance Evaluation Report for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Overall, the authorities indicated that technical assistance (TA) and training had been very useful in improving its statistical systems and statistics. The approach to...

The report on Thailand’s Observance of Standards and Codes examines Data Module, response by the authorities, and detailed assessments using the data quality assessment framework. Thailand possesses a well-developed macroeconomic statistical system, with much strength that spans all of...

The Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC)—Data Module provides an assessment of Botswana’s macroeconomic statistics against the recommendations of the General Data Dissemination System, complemented by an assessment of data quality based on the IMF’s Data...

Robust GDP growth, declining unemployment, low and stable inflation, and a string of fiscal and current account surpluses -- it's a record to be envied. These outcomes in Canada owe much to sound macroeconomic policies, as well as to a favorable external environment. This book focuses on these...

This paper shows that aggregate investment expenditure shares on tradable and nontradable goods are very similar across countries and regions. Furthermore, the two expenditure shares have remained close to constant over time, with the average expenditure share on nontradables varying between...

Over the last decade, a number of methodological manuals on macroeconomic datasets were produced by the international community. For a number of reasons, these manuals could be viewed as fragmented, disconnected, and branching in various directions. This paper groups by topics and broad...